An 80-year-old Villager has been arrested in a violent dispute over parking at a Chinese restaurant in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.
A man was picking up takeout food on Aug. 10 at Cheng’s Chinese Restaurant at Buffalo Ridge Plaza and parked directly in front of the business with his hazard lights on, according to an arrest report from the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. He was standing at the register paying for his food when “an older white male entered the business and started yelling at him because he parked his vehicle in front of the restaurant,” the report said.
The man stood by the front doors “screaming” at the man who was picking up his take-out order.
The enraged man tried to start a “physical fight” and pushed the other man twice. He stumbled backward and knocked over a chair. He grabbed the chair to defend himself.
The other man “yelled at him a few more times and then left the restaurant.”
The man who was attacked over his parking was able to obtain the license plate number of his assailant’s white Honda Pilot SUV. There were also two witnesses who provided statements to deputies who responded to the altercation.
The man who was attacked also told deputies he had “just received his last radiation treatment on his neck and shoulders” and explained that was the reason he had parked directly in front of the Chinese restaurant.
The license plate was traced to Don Reese Loftin Jr. of the Village of Tall Trees. The man who was attacked picked out Loftin in a six-person photo lineup.
The North Carolina native is facing a charge of battery. He pleaded not guilty to the charge on Aug. 29 in Sumter County Court through his attorney, Jaimie Washo Spivey. He remains free on bond, but as a condition of his bond, he may not return to Cheng’s Chinese Restaurant.
